Warren Beatty was never afraid of marriage. It was divorce that had him shaking in his boots.

“I always felt I wasn’t trying to avoid marriage, I was trying to avoid divorce. I had no doubt when I met Annette [Bening] that it was time to get married,” the 79-year-old Hollywood icon said on the “Today” show on Wednesday.

But then Beatty, legendary for his bachelor ways, met Annette Bening.

The two thespians fell for each other while filming 1991’s “Bugsy,” and were married the next year. Twenty-four years and four children later, Beatty could not be happier.

“The most important thing that’s ever happened — the best thing that’s ever happened to me — was Annette and having four kids,” he said.

Of course, before he settled down with Bening, the actor/director is rumored to have made the most of bachelordom. Although Beatty’s since denied it, biographer Peter Biskind claims the star slept with 12,775 women before finally getting married.